Charities estimate the homeless population of Paris to be about 3,000. Many are foreign, often from Eastern Europe. But there's no official data -- an issue that city hall, under pressure to tackle one of the capital's most visible problems, is now trying to fix.
After two blazing rows sparked by politicians' offhand remarks about homelessness, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo carried out the city's first-ever homeless census on Thursday night.
Some 2,000 volunteers and officials fanned out until 1am, counting the bodies huddled in doorways and surveying those awake about their housing and health problems. Rail workers counted those sheltering at metro stations. [...]
An estimate by statistics agency INSEE put France's national homeless count at 143,000 in 2012, but charities say this has likely rocketed due to a housing crunch and the migrant crisis.
Macron's centrist government opened 13,000 extra places in emergency winter shelters. But two ruling party members have landed themselves in hot water over homelessness in the space of just days. Urban affairs minister Julien Denormandie prompted an uproar by asserting only 50 men were sleeping rough in the Paris region -- a stunning underestimate, according to charities. And days later, Paris lawmaker Sylvain Maillard, a member of Macron's party, added fuel to the fire by insisting that some stay on the streets, even in the snow, "by choice".
No comments:
Post a Comment